HONG KONG - Asian stocks slipped on Tuesday as traders cashed in on recent gains while the yen and dollar were steady on speculation of monetary easing in both economies.
Tokyo fell 1.12%, or 107.38 points, to end at 9,495.76 and Sydney edged 0.12%, or 5.6 points, lower to 4,669.8.
Hong Kong fell 0.12% by the break and Shanghai was 0.41% off in the afternoon.
On Wall Street the Dow saw a late sell-off to end 0.21% down as dealers took their money off the table following four weeks of broad gains.
"Today we are having a very classic pull back," Stuart Smith, senior client adviser at Bell Potter in Brisbane, said.
In Tokyo, dealers had an eye on Wednesday's release of the Bank of Japan's key Tankan survey of business confidence.
With the yen riding high against the dollar, hurting exporters' competitiveness and earnings, the general expectation is for a fall in sentiment in the three-monthly index.
"It is difficult to take risks and buy exporter shares before the Tankan release," Yutaka Yoshii, general manager at Mito Securities, told Dow Jones Newswires.
On foreign exchange markets the yen rose to 84.20 against the dollar compared with 84.31 in New York late Monday. The greenback has lost almost half the gains made since Japanese authorities stepped into the currency markets on September 15 for the first time since 2004.
Reports that the BoJ will announce more easing measures -- such as extending cheap loan provisions to banks -- combined with a government plan for a supplementary stimulus budget have prevented the yen from advancing further.
However, the dollar has also been kept in check as traders expect the US Federal Reserve to also announce steps to kickstart the world's biggest economy.
"The direction is hard to discern in the dollar-yen trade as expectations on additional monetary easing by both Japanese and US authorities are mounting," Barclays Capital said in a note to clients.
The euro was mixed, rising to $1.3461 from $1.3448 in New York, but fell to 113.35 yen from 113.40.
It had climbed to $1.3507 on Monday, its highest since April 20 after European Central Bank President Jean-Claude Trichet said "we expect the recovery to proceed at a moderate pace".
But the gains have been curbed by concerns the Irish government will have to spend massive amounts to bail out failed lender Anglo Irish Bank.
On oil markets, New York's main contract, light sweet crude for November delivery, fell 29 cents to $76.23 a barrel and Brent North Sea crude was off 35 cents at $78.22.
Gold opened at $1,293.00 to $1,294.00 an ounce in Hong Kong, down from Monday's closing price of $1,298.00 to $1,299.00.
